MJ: "I would never have called up Larry, Magic & say lets get together."

it may not be overachieving technically, but it's not a true representation of how good of a team you are in relation to other playoff teams. It just means you beat the teams you were suppose to all the time, but those teams won't be in the playoffs. It's a great way to get homecourt, but you've got to be competitive against the top teams too, who are usually the harder working teams.

 

Obvious statement. No question in my mind - Michael Jordan would rather beat you than win a championship (yes it makes sense, just think about it). He is driving my competition. Its what separates him from them. Its what made him the greatest player in the history of team sports. Like a superhero it defines him, its both his blessing and curse.

 

Miami would get squashed, are you kidding me? MJ Magic and Bird were nasty competitors who would physically hurt you to win. LeBron just wants to hug it out with his bros. I predict Dream Team in 5.

 

this!

same as Hakeem the Dream!

 

Honestly i believe the orlando series affected lebron more than anyone knows, I think deep down he knew he could beat orlando and it broke him down when they couldnt.

Remember in game one when he was BEGGING AND PLEADING with his teammates for "ONE STOP" and then after the timeout orlando scored a three with minimal effort, it just looked like he was putting so much effort in and coming up empty i mean he avg close to 40 point that series. Then look how he reacted after that game, dodging the media and not shaking hands, also there is speculation that lebron and maverick carter were calling for mike brown to be fired after that series, I personally think this past year was just a formallity and Lebrons tenure in cleveland ended that night in orlando.

And if thats the case I dont see how you can blame the guy, if you put everything you have into something and you dont succeed through no fault of your own, what more can you ask of the guy? Then on top of that consider that the following year your team has the opportunity to acquire amare stoudmire the guy who was playing like the best pf in the league at the time and the team still opts for antwaun jamison an extemely washed up combo forward who contributed nothing at all.

 

Just to throw it out there, I'm pretty sure hand checking severely limits a player with a play style like Lebron. Not saying it will stop him, but he will become a lot easier to guard.

 

I always will think he took a cop out but at the end of the day it was more about the coach than the lack of talent on his team in my opinion. I'm sure if he said behind the scenes 'If you don't replace Mike Brown I am leaving' it would of been done ASAP. Brown was a terrible coach, plain and simple if you watch any of their games when they're in trouble he never comes up with anything... its just like 'Lebron, see what you can do'.

 

There is no way the league today is as good as it was back then. In the last few decades the mid 80's to mid 90's was easily the most talent packed the NBA has been. A lot of Lebron lovers obviously didn't get to watch that era but the quality of players in my opinion was a lot higher, it was also a lot more competitive as Jordan said. I watched a show on Larry Bird and Magic about what good friends they became off court... but on the court those guys wanted to beat each other badly every time they played... it was a 'this is my team and I am going to make it better than your team' type mentality. Now we are seeing a 'my team is more media friendly than your team'.

 

LOL, I love how MJ compares Wade and Bosh to Larry and Magic.

 

i think you're giving all the power to the team here....the cavs bent over backwards for lebron. Usually superstars like kobe, mj, td, etc get a lot of say on the moves teams make, but lebron got even more and probably asked for more because of it. I've heard how MJ would say who he wanted and who he didnt...he knew who worked and who didnt with him.

I dont believe Lebron has that ability to scout talent. He acts like he's on the level, mentally, of a Kobe or MJ, but he's not. He's a freak of nature physically, who's played enough to reach his enormous potential, but the guy isnt that bright in general. That's why he can't even hold a press conference. I dont even believe his basketball IQ is high naturally, but just due to experience. Nothing wrong with that, but it means he's not going to reach MJ, kobe, TD, etc , status. Those guys had brains on the court and off of it. They also have this certainty about them and it's been well documented how indecisive Lebron is. Because of that, Lebron didnt know how to go about using the Cavs' management to form a team. The desperation both sides felt about the impending free agency sure didnt help. He just wanted talent and the more the better, so they took what they could get and it didnt fit in the end.

 

wasn't there several articles that came out 2 weeks ago that stated lebron wasn't consulted very much?

GMs around the L said lebron was more invovled with heat than he ever was w/ the cavs

 

i dont know if there were, i havent seen any?

I dont want to sound like I'm just hating on Lebron, but i dont think it makes a difference, whether he was involved or not, in the comparison i was trying to make. I can't see MJ standing back in that situation and not having any input...not demanding to have some input. and when he got it, he'd make sure they were on the same page. If lebron had the power, he didnt use it wisely. If he didnt, he should have. He's was their golden boy and he needed to use that leverage to make sure they were building something good in Cleveland.

Either way, like i said previously, i dont think he has the mind that's needed to do something good with that power.

 

umm.. MJ and bulls' management were never on the same page for your information. there's a reason he hated that management till this day.

there was an article (or two) a week or so ago that stated lebron didn't have much input on players who come or go to cleveland. and that's completely different from what garbage fans on here spew.

again, why are we keep talking in circles in regards to lebron?

WAIT FOR HIM TO PLAY. if he is as good as he "thinks" or "is," he'll dominate playing with wade and bosh and continue to rack up MVPs. if he's not, then he shouldn't be in the convo anyways.

let the season start and we will see whether lebron is the leader of that heat team on the court, or someone who defers. i think he'll be the former, but we'll see.

 

i'm not saying he been fooling us or anything. His play is definitely legit. I just believe there's obviously more needed, than superior talent, to be the main guy on a team built from scratch that was slowly put together and eventually won a title. I dont doubt he may win another MVP. Hell, he may win a ring next year, but my point was i dont see him being that kind of guy who starts it all and help build a contender. He's not in that situation anymore though because he took an easier route. Wade has that decisive mentality, which is why he did the recruting here and pretty much got his way. He's the one who's been talking since too.

I think Lebron is too worried about playing with who he likes, rather than who he needs. MJ had trouble initially dealing with who he needed, since he didnt always like them, but he dealt with it and pushed them and they pushed back, which only made the team better. Lebron wasnt going to get what he needed by mainly keeping those he guys he could chill and hang out with. Wasnt he a big reason they kept Gibson? And that bombed completely....thats why they all looked like buds hanging out on the bench, rather than grown men doing a job out there. It's cool to have some fun, but i think that was/is too high of a priority for him. I think both he and the front office deserve equal blame at least.

but you're right about the problems MJ had with management...i forgot about the initial spats he had with krause and the oakley-cartwright trade...i was thinking mostly about stuff i read during the second 3 peat.

 

it's not wade who got james and bosh to sacrifice and all that BS. miami's cap situation could afford that. and pat riley helped create that.

wade's talking, but no one is listening. the media is still focused on lebron. he's the face of the heat now.

every ESPN highlight will start and end with lebron james.

 

I think people just don't realize how good lebron is. He willed the cavs to 60 wins, and without him they would of been lucky to win 20. There was a reason he was MVP.

In the finals, the celtics made James give up the ball and let his teammates score, and we saw just how bad they played, when lebron wasn't scoring, no one stepped up for lebron.

I bet most people posting anti bron messages have never really watched him play. People need to chill out..

 

I'm not talking about giving up money, but about getting james over there. bosh came straight out and said he wasnt playing in cleveland. Wade wanted to do it in miami or chicago, not cleveland. Lebron was the only one trying to do it in any of the three. He was the only one who wasnt certain about something. Everyone is saying i dont want this, but i'll do this. Meanwhile Lebron was willing to go for all 3 options.

The media may be focused on Lebron, but that's not going to change his mindset. Like i said, my point is pretty much relevant to his situation in Cleveland, not Miami. I was comparing him and MJ in similar situations as the face of a franchise. Now Lebron isn't the face of the franchise, he may be very popular, but Wade is the guy now and will always be that guy. Anything else would be like houston fans focusing on Drexler instead of Dream.

 

well jordan did play for chicago and lost his first 7 years there. they won in 1991. its not like the minute he stepped onto the court, he had a champ team there. So it was not that easy to stick with chicago as you are assuming.

 

Willed? They had a large margin of victory...the team started strong and finished strong. "Willed" involves more hardship, more trouble and obstacles to get through. What he gave them was confidence and they rode that around him to 60 wins. They bought what he was selling, that they were this championship team. He overrated them and they bought into it. In the playoffs though the talent has to eventually show up over the confidence.

the relationship is like parents and kids. You cant be this authority figure 24/7 or else it'll feel like a rigid boss-employee relationship where one can't speak up or confide in the other. On the other hand, you cant be a buddy to them 24/7 or they'll see you as just a peer, a friend, and lose the respect an authority figure should get. LEbron treated them as (and was) a friend to them and because of that they didnt fully respect him. To fully respect someone you must fear them, but the fear is being afraid to let them down. They respected his skills, but didnt have enough respect to fear letting him down and that's why when he needed help they didnt lock their minds in and got to work. In their minds everything would stay ok between them and they'd just try again next year.

I think next year you'll have Lebron be the one who's afraid to let down wade and bosh and not the other way around...